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Usman Khawaja Slams culture of ‘racial stereotyping’ Australia Cricket, declared the sport “still very white” when announcing his retirement.
Fifth Ashes Test to be held at Khawaja’s hometown Sydney This will be the final act of his 15-year career at Pine Green and the 39-year-old will not go quietly.
Pakistan-born batsman, Australia’s first batsman Muslim The Test cricketer spoke for more than 45 minutes at the SCG on Friday morning, telling reporters he was “no longer tied down” as he expressed dissatisfaction with the unequal treatment he received.
While many of his grievances are historical, he slammed the way his back injury in the series opener against England was reported and received, suggesting he was being treated unfairly.
“Even now, I always feel a little different. I’m treated differently, things happen differently,” he said.
“When I was doing back exercises, I got spasms in my back, which I couldn’t control. The media and past players came out to attack me… I lived with it for five days straight. Everyone was swarming.
“Once racial stereotypes came up, I became lazy and that’s something I’ve dealt with my whole life. PakistanWest Indies, black players… We are selfish, we only care about ourselves, we don’t care about the team, we don’t train hard enough.
“I just think the media, the older players and others have gotten over them, but we obviously haven’t gotten over them yet. All of those things come back and make me realize we’re not quite there yet.
“I can give you tons of people who were golfing the day before and got injured and you (the media) said nothing. I can give you tons more people who had 15 beers the night before and got injured and no one said a word. It doesn’t matter, they’re just Australians, just lads.”
“When I get hurt, everyone focuses on my credibility and who I am as a person. Usually when someone gets hurt, you feel sorry for them. ‘Poor Josh Hazlewood’ or ‘Poor Nathan Lyon.’ We feel sorry for them and we don’t attack what happened to them.
“We are a better and more inclusive society than we were before, but there is still a long way to go because Australian cricket is still very white in many aspects.”
Khawaja, who scored more than 6,000 Test runs in 87 games with 16 centuries, said he expected his words to be resented by some but hoped to pave the way for others to follow in his footsteps.
“I know I’m talking here and people are going to say, ‘Here comes Uzi, he’s playing the race card again.’ I know people want to attack me. But don’t make me angry,” he said.
“Where we are today, Islamophobia is still very prevalent. I talked about that. I don’t want to talk about it, but I just hope the next Usman Khawaja’s journey is different.
“I hope the next Usman Khawaja’s journey will be easier and that no matter how many generations it takes, we will reach a line where Usman Khawaja is the same as John Smith. That’s what I’m always trying to defend.
“I call myself the people’s champion. Not because I think everyone loves me, but because I talk for the people about things that no one else wants to talk about.”